Investigations and Studies
Activities of ITSA will not be inconsistent with international operations or international obligations of members such as with ICAO, IMO, EU or others. Unanimity exists to act as an advocate for independent accident investigations. While ITSA may advocate support for certain safety issues about which members concur, each ITSA member is free to advocate its own independent opinion or viewpoint, based on its national commitments or obligations, or government policy.
However, to ITSA it is also important to deliberate on ‘what kind of safety issues’ have been encountered by its members. Questions arise like: How can the safety deficiencies that have been identified be categorized? Are these safety deficiencies different per sector or do they have common backgrounds or conditions? Can these safety deficiencies, for instance be traced back to the fact that safety is out of balance with other societal interests? In short: what can we learn from each other, and: are there safety deficiencies and issues of general interest in transportation systems that can be addressed for the common good?
This mutual learning is accomplished in two ways:
Per board
Prime activities of ITSA aim at forming collegial and personal relationships, to exchange information and provide mutual support to improve the quality of the products and performance of each board. Members may inform each other on various activities and offering an opportunity to ask further exploratory questions. Also, boards may provide summaries of their reports, findings or recommendations which are considered of a general interest to others. Full reports are available on each members website page.
Per specific issue, per mode or sector
Issues may arise per mode or per sector, related to specialized topics such as metal fatigue in railway wheels, fishing vessel safety, level railway crossings, human performance or resting times for drivers.
Separate arrangements can be made among members, relevant experts and stakeholders in the various areas to cooperate on these issues.
Scope of ITSA
In principle, ITSA covers all modes of transportation, including aviation, marine, railways, road transport, pipelines and underground infrastructure as well as multimodal systems. Actual involvement of members in investigating transportation accidents may vary considerable across modes and countries. Summaries of reports and documents are made available to share information of a general interest to members and others in the transportation field. For access to full reports or documents, visit the websites of each member noted in the related websites section. Other international organisations are also referenced.
Other sectors than transportation
On some occasions, transportation safety boards are requested to support non-transportation accident investigations. Other boards, such as in Sweden and Finland, have statutory jurisdiction covering sectors in addition to transportation. The Netherlands followed this example and opted for one board dealing with transport, defence, industrial sectors, natural disasters and major accidents and incidents in other sectors such as explosions, major fires, or the collapse of buildings and structures. A fundamental consideration to expand the scope was whether there are opportunities to learn from the occurrences and consequently prevent similar occurrences in the future .